Exhibition Review: Fortune, by An Nguyen

Harmonious Turns in Wonderland, An Nguyen

The glowing yellow, pink and orange band of skies above and florals below frame a summery amusement park scene in a detailed diptych entitled Harmonious Turns in Wonderland. This work, by Vietnamese Canadian and Ottawa-based artist An Nguyen, dazzles the eyes and draws one into the merrymaking of a teacup ride, a carousel, a Ferris wheel, a rollercoaster, and a swing ride. It is one of 20 vivid and lively canvases in acrylic, featured in her latest solo exhibition Fortune, currently on display at the Atrium Art Gallery (101 Centrepointe Drive, Ottawa, ON), from November 6, 2025, to January 19, 2026. 

A closer look at Harmonious Turns in Wonderland reveals its Asian flavour in the lotus flowers adorning the work and the animals of the Chinese zodiac featured in the carousel. Also disclosed, upon scanning the work’s QR code, is the artist’s memory of a vacation to Canada’s Wonderland – one her parents, living on a basic income, could afford. While many families in the 1990s were able to travel to Disneyland or the South, day trips like these were the norm for most refugee households.  In this work, the marriage of West and East, both obvious and hidden, is a theme that connects Nguyen’s paintings in this exhibition. 

Roots of Silence, Seeds of Song, An Nguyen

These conceptual threads run through the canvas of Roots of Silence, Seeds of Song, in which hidden bamboo stalks – symbolic of resilience and strength in East Asian culture – are juxtaposed with dominant white flowers, suggestive of innocence and purity. In this self-portrait, the artist uses flora to represent her inner qualities, while she tries to find her voice in a house that attempts to hide her identity and box her voice.

Hopes Adrift, An Nguyen 

More solemn than these paintings is Nguyen’s most moving piece, entitled Hopes Adrift – a work that aptly takes centre stage, featuring on a wall of its own. The sombre mood of this large painting, with its dark skies and thrashing, stormy seas, tells a tale of the perilous journey of Vietnamese refugees, including Nguyen’s parents, who fled from Saigon to safety. The right and left panels of this triptych depict their flight on boats across the South China Sea, as some drown in the dark waters, while others make it to land with their belongings. The emotional toll of this crossing is revealed in the center panel, where a mother sadly holds her children in a protective embrace – a scene narrating Nguyen’s own mother, who held onto her during their flight, when the artist was a five-month-old baby. This theme of safeguarding children in dangerous waters is also present in A Safe Place to Land, depicting the artist as a protective mother embracing her two children, as high water and waves envelop them in a shattered glass womb.

Abundance, An Nguyen

In addition to her family’s struggle as refugees, Nguyen also achieves balance in her works, which celebrate her Asian identity. In Abundance, a feast of pho, dumplings and spring rolls covers a table at which are seated a cheerful, golden Buddha and a lucky white cat, who sit joyfully beneath red lanterns floating in the night skies of the Ottawa Asian Food Festival. The same laughing and rotund Buddha is also featured as the exhibition’s sole sculptural piece, entitled Buddha Beats. This carefree clay figure – a contemporary and bicultural, Asian-Canadian Buddha – happily drowns out the chaos of the world with his headphones. This atmosphere of jubilation continues in Hearts of Freedom– Tribute to Ottawa’s Project 4000, a historic piece which commemorates a humanitarian initiative by former Ottawa Mayor, Marion Dewar, which resettled 4,000 Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees in Ottawa after the end of the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975.

Hearts of Freedom - Tribute to Ottawa's Project 4000, An Nguyen 

In this exhibition, Nguyen’s artworks not only express her flight from the Vietnam War and her perilous journey as a refugee, but also her struggle and fond memories of a childhood in Ontario– all culminating in a celebration of dazzling canvases of her bicultural identity –East and West, apparent and hidden. 

For more details, please visit www.AnNguyenArtist.com, or follow An Nguyen on Instagram @an_nguyen.artist.